Waterloo Co - Op

[qwerty123]

HI everyone......

I just got accepted into Waterloo SE.

I was just wondering what is the actual employment rate of 1st year eng.
I also found this forum where one person claims it is 33% (4th from top)

http://forums.studentawards.com/yaf_postst9482_Waterloo-coop-employment-rate.aspx

Can any one confirm this..preferably a person who is in engineering......




THANK U ALL.

[Tony]

it looks like the stats page is currently broken... weird.

Anyway, the above stat was posted with a full month left to go in the academic term; + there is still time into the next term, when jobsearch still happens. It _is_ tougher for first year students, mostly because a lot of new students have nearly identical CVs -- blank.

The good news is that students in SE/CS/CE/etc are the least affected by the economic downturn. In fact, I'm still regularly asked if I know of anyone to fill various technical jobs. There seems to still be more demand than available skill to fill it.

Quote:

almost anybody who can program well is pretty much guaranteed an interesting job, that actually does something useful to society.

Greg Wilson -- http://compsci.ca/blog/computer-science-at-the-university-of-toronto-in-video/

[qwerty123]

so whats the co op employment rate 4 first year students now??


Also what could i do to prepare for the SE program over the summer?

[Tony]

As of April 30th, the stats for 1B SE is 71% employed.

3rd year SEs on co-op this summer are 95% employed.

FYI, 1B CS is at 53%, but gets up to the same 95% in 3rd year. And 100% in 4th. (there is no 4th year data for SE this term)

[x30Jx]

YES! 95% SE'S EMPLOYED?!?

That's what I am going for (OMG OMG OMFG!!)
so EXCITED!

[Tony]

@x30Jx -- you are going for 3rd year SE?

[Horus]

Tony @ Sat May 09, 2009 3:16 pm wrote:

As of April 30th, the stats for 1B SE is 71% employed.

3rd year SEs on co-op this summer are 95% employed.

FYI, 1B CS is at 53%, but gets up to the same 95% in 3rd year. And 100% in 4th. (there is no 4th year data for SE this term)

OMG 53% in first year for CS?

that's much lower than I expected.

does this count the people who are in regular or is it only to the people who choose coop?

and what about the stat for 2nd year?


just wondering what do most ppl do when they don't get a coop job? study for 1 more semester, take a break, or find their own job?

[Prabhakar Ragde]

That's just the people in co-op.

This is a particularly tough year because not only is there a severe recession in progress, but the Math Faculty overshot their co-op target by 200 students or so.

People do all three of the things you suggested, though finding one's own job or even volunteering can count for a co-op term as long as the work is related to one's program of study.

[Tony]

On top, summers are typically the toughest terms for entry-level employment, as that is the term when students not in co-op (Waterloo's regular program + other Universities) also look for jobs.

[x30Jx]

Tony: I guess not... But I will get there eventually.

[qwerty123]

I found another article which says 78% of first year engineering students are unemployed.

http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/?module=displaystory&story_id=4241&format=html

How does this statistic reflect on Software engineer students???





THNAKS

[Prabhakar Ragde]

That's from March 25.

The executive director of CECS told us at a meeting this week that they had 50 more students employed than at this point last year, which is pretty amazing considering how much things have changed. But because there are more students enrolled than at this point last year, their statistics are down 6% overall.

I think the first-year figures are always lower than the rest, but in good years, no one bothered to pay much attention to them.

[qwerty123]

Thanks so much..


On another note

I have heard a lot of things about PDeng.....

Could anyone tell me what it is and why is it being criticized so much???

[Prabhakar Ragde]

PDEng is an attempt by Waterloo Engineering to try to teach certain professional skills outside the classroom through web-based modules completed on work terms.

The first offerings had the usual gap between intentions and reality, compounded by the reluctance of co-op students to do even more UW-related work while on work terms. PDEng personnel have tried to address student concerns while making it pretty clear that the program is not going to go away.

Meanwhile, the administration got the idea that if students had academic responsibilities while on work terms, the university could claim the students for government grant purposes even while they were off-campus, resulting in an increase in revenues.

I have no idea if this argument succeeded (I doubt it) but as a result, the idea of PDEng spread to the rest of the campus, except that it is generic to the other five Faculties instead of being discipline-specific.

Students are in general not happy about this. If you find the website of the Iron Warrior, the Engineering student paper, and search for "PDEng", you will find many more details.

[mono-1-rulz]

hey ,
i am going to apply Comp. sci. coop next yr......can anyone tell wht sort of jobs are available nowadays?? would i be able to get into game programming from this program or is it different??